Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-08-06
CHANGE OF BASE.
Greater Prosperity in Store for the
Great Southwest and the Winning
Wonder.

That great change is to be made in the
| products of southwestern Kansas is daily
becoming more evident When this coun-
| try was first opened up to settlement the
necessity of the people, more than any
thing else, turned the attention of our
farmers to wheat raising. The settlers
were mostly of moderate means and wheat
promised quicker returns than any other
crop. The enormous crops of wheat rails
ed here brought the country into notice
everywhere. Wheat was daily shipped
from this city, not by car loads only, but
by the train loads. Even before Wichita
was ter years old it was claimed, and not
without reason, that it was the greatest in
land wheat market in the world. The mil
lions of bushels of wheat shipped from
Wichita between the years 1875 and 1884
was indeed marvellous That one fact
more than any thing else attracted the at
tention of the world 10 the productiveness
of Kansas SOIL Time, how
ever, has demonstrated that
that corn and hogs pay the farmer much
better than wheat, and in consequence this
great country is rapidly being changed
from wheat growing country to corn and
stock growing, The farmers who have
turned their attention in this direction are
every one Of them prosperous. An idea OF
the possibilities of Sedgwick county alone
may be gained from the fact that old corn
on hand the first day of March amounted
to over half million bushels. The acre
age this year is 154, 813. Estimating this
at thirty bushels per acre and adding it to
the amount of old corn that will probably
be on hand when the new is harvested, and
we will have five million bushels of corn,
which means in the eyes Of hog raisers
fifty million pounds of pork. On the first
day of March when the hog crop had been
nearly all marketed and not much else than
breeding stock on hand, Sedgwick county
had 46, 423 head of hogs, and besides mich
COWS 31,0s9 head Of cattle. TAX
ing the counties of Harvey, Butler,
Cowley, Sumner, Sedgwick, Reno,
Kingman, Pratt, Harper and this county
is not much more if any than an average
of the capability Of the whole for stock
raising. County Clerk Ford says he is sat
isfied there are not less than $4,000 hogs in
Sedgwick county today. From actual fig
ures obtained from the assessors books in
this county we can form some idea OF the
capabilities of the nine counties named for
stock raising. These things teach the i'm
portant lesson that the territory Immediately
surrounding Wichita will furnish stock sui
ficient to sustain an important packing es-
tablishmeut. And when we include the
great Southwest any person of ordinary
foresight can see that In the immediate
future the Peerless Princess, in addition to
her other great industries, will be one OF
the greatest meat packing points In the
world. The great Southwest has profted
by the last ten years experience and
today Is on the highway to success
anu IOTtunc. ldih VI w iCuito HioA '0iOuo
growth. The sun of her prosperity is only
just breaking through the morning mists
and Illuminating the mountain tops which
cast their shadows across the valley of
abundant fields of grain and grove in
which the birds are singing their early joy
GUS morning song. In an incredible short
time that sun will flood the land with its
glorious mid day light, and reveal to an
admiring world the grandest young city of
the west. The Peerless Princess of the
plains arrayed in robes Of increased splen'
dor
1t now is discovered that those boom
articles in the Wichita EAGLE were not
written by Marsh Murdoch at all. He has
Al